Filipina Nurse in London Bridge Attack Conferred with OBE

A Filipina nurse was among 43 recipients who were honored in Britain’s New Year Honours List 2019 for her work in treating victims of the London Bridge terrorist attack in 2017.

Joy Ongcachuy, who started working at The Royal London Hospital in 2002 as a scrub nurse. Fifteen years later she was promoted to robotic lead nurse. It was also on June 3rd of that year when a errorist plowed into the crowd and stabbed pedestrians on London Bridge on the night of June 3, 2017. Ongcachuy was among the first responders at the scene.

Ongcachuy was conferred by Queen Elizabeth an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) award, given to those with “major local role in any activity, including people whose work has made them known nationally in their chosen area.”

Ongcachuy lives in Stratford, London.

“I am glad I made the UK my home all those years ago. To be welcomed and recognized by Her Majesty is overwhelming, humbling and exciting all at once,” Ongcachuy was quoted in an article posted on the website of Barts Health NHS Trust in the UK on Dec. 29 last year.

“I was working the night shift that night and I heard the anaesthetist’s bleep go off. We already had a really sick patient in one of our theaters, so I had to get our other theatres ready and pull a team of nurses, allied health professionals, and operating department practitioners together.

“We opened an additional six theaters that night and everyone I called dropped everything they were doing to come to the aid of the patients. No one panicked; everyone was calm and so supportive.”
She also assisted in tending to the victims of another car-ramming attack a week later at the Finsbury Park in London, where one died and nine were injured,” she added.

Ongcachuy also assisted in tending to the victims of another car-ramming attack a week later at the Finsbury Park in London, where one died and nine were injured.

Prominent personalities also decorated were knighted author Philip Pullman and literary icon Margaret Atwood, who became a dame. Included in the list of honorees were British divers Richard Stanton and John Volanthen, who were the first to reach the 12 boys and their coach trapped in a Thailand cave complex for 18 days.